American Immigration In The Late 1800s

The United States has a long history with immigration. It started when Native Americans moved to Americas from Asia. After a while in about 1600, many Europeans immigrated to America looking for land, food and gold, and also fleeing from wars, poverty and famine. After that, people from all around the world kept immigrating in waves to the US until this day. With the diversity of people living in America, the need for defining the word “American” became necessary. It is not clear who is defined as “American”. People have different opinions and perspectives of whom to call American. However, the most common concept is that American is called for white people with European descendant. In this essay, I will discuss the definition of “American”

The Irish, for example, were not accepted in the US and they were not considered white when they first immigrated to the US in the 1840s and 1850s (Behrens 3). Early immigrants, like British, did not treat the Irish respectfully. They viewed the Irish as “… unclean, Immoral and dangerously in thrall to a bizarre religion” (Behrens 3). They were considered as a different race/ethnicity by themselves. After years of racism against them, they were included in the definition of American. From that time until now, more people are being included in the definition of American. However, whom is defined as American remains different from person to another and from country/government to

People who live, work or have any contact with undocumented immigrants, would definitely be in favor of naturalizing them and including them in the definition of American. However, when someone is talking about a big group in general, usually they don’t care much about them because of the lack of connection. On the other hand, when someone knows individuals, they sympathize with them because they feel closer to them and understand them more. A friend of mine is a teacher at a middle school that has many documented and undocumented immigrants. Because those immigrants are her students, she feels close to them and she considers them Americans. She once said “if we import most, if not all, of our food, clothes and cars from other countries, why do we complain about having an immigrant